“People are definitely buying the news,” he said. “This is another case of Ripple showing its dominance in real world relationships with financial companies, and yet another spike in XRP’s price because of it.”

The company has struck deals with various high-profile financial institutions, including Santander and American Express. But those partnerships have so far been mostly focused on another product called xCurrent.

Ripple’s Sarbhai said that more than 120 banks are currently partnered with Ripple, using the blockchain-based product xCurrent. Firms testing the product include money transfer giants Western Union and MoneyGram and payment upstarts MercuryFX, Viamericas and Cuallix.

Ripple’s xCurrent is used by banks to settle international transactions and is used to confirm each stage of a cross-border payment in real-time, according to the company.

This week, U.S. banking giant PNC announced it would use Ripple’s blockchain technology for cross-border transactions like wire transfers, but it won’t be using the cryptocurrency XRP.

Despite the partnerships, XRP has a long way to recover to this year’s highs above $3.60 in January. It’s still down 66 percent from the beginning of the year.